


It's My Party

by missema



Category: Mass Effect - All Media Types, Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: Birthday Party, Birthday Presents, F/M, Friendship, Holiday Fic Exchange
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-21
Updated: 2018-01-21
Packaged: 2019-03-07 19:39:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,736
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13441905
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/missema/pseuds/missema
Summary: Saskia Shepard's birthday is on Christmas Day, so Garrus decides to throw her a morale boosting birthday party. It honestly doesn't matter if it's her birthday or not, because right now they both need a reason to smile.Takes place early in ME3.Written for briarfox13 for the Holiday Harbinger exchange featuring her custom Saskia Shepard.





	It's My Party

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Briarfox13](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Briarfox13/gifts).



There were times when she woke up and was confused about everything. 

This morning she'd thought she was back in the Alliance prison, only the measured hum of the ship's engines helping her realize she wasn't planetside. The dream had felt real, the monotony of living in the confined space, the anxiety she'd felt knowing that she should be out there, but also there, making sure she set things right. She always felt like she had to at least try to do the right thing, even when it wasn't the best option.

Dreams. They were such a mixture of recent events and childhood memories, and hers were good, for the most part. The worst dreams were the ones where she thought she was on Horizon. Funnily enough, Saskia didn't remember enough about the Collector Base to dream about it. She remembered Ilum though, with it's waterfalls and the wise specter of Vigil, a place that could have once been peaceful if not for Saren and his plans, that damn krogan experimentation plant.

Enough of that. She had to get out of bed sometime. It wasn't like her to stay in bed anyway, and she swung her legs out of the blanket and headed for the shower. Garrus was already gone, he thought it indiscreet to stay in her quarters too often, but it wasn't as if they were a secret. She suspected, though she never prodded him and asked, that it was some sort of lingering respect for the chain of command that made him so conscious of appearance, even though she wasn't technically his commanding officer.

Turians. They were so bound up in rules and so lovable. Or maybe that was just her turian.

Just when she was thinking about him, a message came through on her omni-tool: Went to the Citadel when we docked. Didn't want to wake you. Meet me here at 1800.

A navpoint was attached. Saskia scanned it, then looked at the fifteen other urgent messages that had just come in. It would be a miracle if she even got to read them all by 1800. First a shower, then breakfast, she could at least try to read some of her messages while scarfing down her rations. It was the thought of all eight minutes of hot water she was allotted that got her going. If her day was off to its regular start, she'd only get messaged ten times while she was in there.

#

He wanted to surprise her, and Garrus though he'd almost done it. 

It was hard to get the jump on Shepard at any time, let alone doing something that included most of her crew and friends. The Citadel was the one place where everyone could be without arousing suspicion and it was still relatively easy to access. A war was the worst of times, but also he couldn't think of a better time to surprise Kia. She desperately needed the lift.

It wasn't something he ever saw in public. She never slipped, wouldn't let people down, but she'd been fighting for years. Years of warfare would take their toll on any soldier, but so many of them she'd been alone. No one had believed her. She'd been imprisoned. People died and Shepard, his beautiful Shepard, took responsibility for it, even when she couldn't have saved them.

She needed this, and come to think on it, so did he.

#

Shepard was late and walking quickly through the crowds on the Citadel. She'd been trying to get Udina to give her greater access to the colonies. They couldn't help Earth if she couldn't keep them safe, but he was still dragging his feet. Sometimes, she understood his caution, but now was not the time for it.

The elevator dinged and let her off at the appointed floor. Even outside she could hear the throbbing beats of the music coming from Purgatory. Before the influx of refugees to the Citadel, the club had been a middling area, mostly filled with soldiers and tourists. Avina didn't even have it listed in her directory. The locals had other places to go, and the Wards definitely had many more clubs that catered to different types. Everyone had their favorite neighborhood bar and dance club, or so it seemed like on the Citadel.

Saskia slipped into the bar without many people noticing, and those that did just turned away from her. In the dim light she was just another Alliance Marine, a little worn and ragged around the edges from long days fighting the war. Garrus had sent her a meeting point away from the main bar, and she pushed through the ever-increasing crowds towards a private back room she hadn't known was there before.

When she went through the door, her soldier training and Cerberus enhanced senses told her that she wasn't alone just a split second before a chorus of voices yelled "Surprise!" in her general direction.

The lights snapped on and Saskia smiled, feeling a laugh bubble up in her throat. A banner hanging over just about everyone she loved read "Happy Birthday Shepard!".

Garrus came up to her and caught her in an embrace. "Surprised, Shepard?"

"It's not even my birthday," she pointed out, but the laughter that lined the words showed how little she cared about the inaccuracy.

"You said you never got good gifts for your birthday because it was on Christmas. I thought that we could remedy that, just this once."

Saskia laughed, the sheer surprise of it all catching up to her. "I always had a party, my parents never forgot, but this is so," she stopped, unsure how to say it. It was like her childhood, it was the thoughtfulness of her parents all the love and care they could show her even as they were so busy. The thoughtfulness of this gesture was almost overwhelming.

She leaned in and touched her forehead to his, just for a moment, then let him go. There would be time later to thank Garrus, but now she had a room full of people, and she'd just noticed they'd all brought presents.

Shepard loved presents! She didn't even try not to grin as she went over to the table that was surprisingly full of wrapped (some more inexpertly than others) presents.

#

There was cake, there was something close to iced cream, presents and dancing, but most of all there was Shepard. Saskia was there, laughing, talking, opening gifts and aiming her precious new guns at everyone. There had been so many guns, mostly from Wrex and Grunt. Those two went overboard for Shepard, but it was out of the purest of affection, and she didn't seem to mind.

Tali also gave her a gun, but it was one the quarian had designed with Shepard in mind. Unfortunately she couldn't come to the party, but had sent it along to Garrus. It had only arived recently, just in the nick of time. A prototype, the sniper rifle even had him giving it loving looks, and not just any sniper could get him interested these days. It had to be just the right one. Joker had capitalized on the fact that Shepard's model ship collection was always expanding and got her one of the hard to find ships. Kaidan had also gone with the ship theme, but gave her a vintage ship in a bottle, which Saskia cooed over as if it were more precious than a baby. He was still in the hospital, but had sent his along with Joker and EDI in her new body. 

"I hope you didn't go to see Kaidan in the hospital," Shepard said to EDI, eyeing her warily. That was the body that had put him in Huerta Memorial, and it would be a shock to see it again.

"No, Commander, we aren't that stupid," Joker replied, giving her a look. "He wanted to come, but they wouldn't even let him out in a wheelchair, so I had Vega pick it up."

"Good thinking," Shepard said, glancing over to where James was flexing as he talked to Cortez. She shook her head at them, and turned back to her pile of presents.

A full library of asari history books came from Liara, some of which she had to get directly from the matriarchs that authored them. Many were banned on Thessia, and Shepard took the datapad with a grateful smile, sure that some of them weren't as scholarly as they pretended to be. Aria T'Loak had caught wind of their get together, and she sent in a bottle of the best liquor that Purgatory had -- and it wasn't half bad.

His gift that he gave her in front of everyone was turian tactical guides. It was a practical gift, but she was enthusiastic about it nonetheless. Shepard always asked questions, soldier's questions, commander's questions and just nosy human questions whenever she met with new people. She was aggressively curious about so many things, and loved being a soldier. Garrus figured he couldn't really go wrong with tactical guides. They were turian military issue -- the latest he could get with his clearance.

"These are amazing. Thank you, all of you," Saskia said. She didn't give any great speech, but Garrus caught up with her as she walking through the party, thanking everyone personally.

"I hope you realize that's only part of your gift," Garrus said, leaning against the wall. The party was starting to break up, their guests full of cake and Aria's gift were now spilling into the the regular club part of Purgatory.

"Oh?" Saskia asked, raising an eyebrow at him.

"If I gave you a birthday massage in front of everyone, they'd all demand my services. I didn't think you'd want to share," he said.

"Definitely not. This isn't really my birthday, but it's the best one I've had in years," she said sincerely.

Garrus held out his hand and she took it, her warm fingers wrapping around his. "It's not over yet," he promised. 

All in all it was less than three hours of a party, not including the massage. But even a week later, Shepard was still smiling and talking about her gifts, so he decided it was definitely one of his better morale boosting ideas since the start of the Reaper war. Shepard deserved it, just that small break, and he liked giving her a reason to smile.


End file.
